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For some stores and restaurants, buying local, fresh ingredients is the only way to do business.

Moburts, 732 S.W. Gage, is a store that specializes in spices and sugars. Al Struttman, who co-owns and operates the store with his wife, Mary Jo, said he sells ingredients to Via’s Pizza and More, which is located next door to Moburts, as well as Cafe Barnabas, Mad Eliza’s and Big Uns Grill.

“The important thing about spices are the essential oils,” Struttman said. “It’s more flavorful (than sugars and spices that have been packaged).”

The Struttmans also have a weekly spot at the downtown farmer’s market, along with Kan You Say OH YUM!’s owner Mary Tyler and Jason Harris, who works for his family’s company, Oatie Beef.

Tyler not only sells her baked goods at the farmer’s market and out of her own business in Auburn, she also prepares the cinnamon rolls and cookies sold at Cafe Barnabas, 5331 S.W. 22nd Place. Tyler goes into the cafe every week and makes everything from scratch with fresh ingredients, even using her own eggs from chickens she raises. All the cafe’s volunteers need to do is put the items in the oven, and they have fresh-baked goods for their customers.

“It has a much richer, deeper and real flavor,” Tyler said. “And I use all real ingredients. I don’t use any processed or boxed foods.”

Kevin Christiansen, owner and director of Cafe Barnabas, said one of the reasons he wants to use fresh ingredients in the cafe is to promote a healthier lifestyle. The cafe not only gets fresh cinnamon rolls and cookies, but they also buy their produce from the Trash Mountain Project.

“If I have a spice in here, it comes from Moburts,” Christiansen said. “We really are a snapshot of our neighbors at the farmer’s market. Our primary product is tea-based products, and because tea is naturally very healthy, we would like the rest of our products to follow that. I can slowly work on redeveloping the sugar-saturated palates of youth culture today.”

On the other side of the spectrum, Mad Eliza’s co-owner Mark Murnahan isn’t as concerned about redeveloping people’s love of sugar, but he said he tries to use as many local and fresh ingredients as possible.

“When the focus is on quality, you care about what you’re using in your food,” Murnahan said. “I would really like to have more options (for fresh and local ingredients) in Topeka.”

Jeff Herman, owner of Herman’s Meat and Deli, 2825 S.W. Fairlawn, recently started working with Oatie Beef and buying a few of their products.

“I’m excited about bringing something in that’s local and hormone-free,” Herman said.

Harris, who helps run Oatie Beef in Dwight with his wife and her family, said their farm began selling 70 different cuts of meat within the past year.

“They’re all home-raised animals,” Harris said. “We fatten them on oats and alfalfa instead of corn. The reason we do that is because it lowers the cholesterol in meat. So far, we’re the only ones in the area who market it or even in the U.S. We carry anything from brisket to hot dogs.”

Harris said the homegrown beef has helped him in a medicinal way. He has a red meat allergy where he can’t eat any sort of store-bought beef, but he is able to eat the beef his family’s farm sells.